


Family Ties

by gothamsnightmares_writing



Series: Family Ties [1]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Other, The Valeska Twins as little children
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:46:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27763960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gothamsnightmares_writing/pseuds/gothamsnightmares_writing
Summary: In this first chapter, the sister tries her best to cheer up little Jerome after he got beaten up again by their mother and uncle, unfortunately forcing her to confront Jeremiah at some point about his own role in Jerome's tear soaked state.
Relationships: Jeremiah Valeska & Jerome Valeska, Jeremiah Valeska/Original Female Character(s), Jeremiah Valeska/Reader, Jerome Valeska/Original Female Character(s), Jerome Valeska/Reader, Reader is Jeremiah/Jerome's half-sister
Series: Family Ties [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2031031
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Family Ties

**Author's Note:**

> Jerome and Jeremiah are about 5 in this chapter, while their sister is around 11, altough she might seem a lot more mature than that at times.

It was early in the afternoon and you were heading home from practicing alone with your mother’s snakes, when you saw Jerome sitting outside on the steps of your trailer, apparently crying. You instantly knew what must have happened to him, so you sprinted right over to him. „Honey, what happened?“ - „I ran too fast and I fell!“ He claimed with a sob, but you could tell based on the injuries on his face and arms that he was lying to you. „Jerome, you don’t have to lie to me about that, you know that!“ You reminded him while you got down on your knees in front of him, taking his chin into your left hand gently and stroking across his right cheek with the back of your hand to wipe off some of the tears streaming down his face. „But I’m not supposed to talk about it!“ Jerome said, now addressing his shoes instead of you. You let out a sigh and took his face into your hands very carefully to get him to look at you again. You gave him a kiss on the forehead, then wiped the tears off his cheeks with your thumbs softly. „Mum still home?“ You asked while you kept wiping the tears of his face gently. When Jerome shook his head, you wondered: „So why are you sitting around outside?“ - „Cause he wouldn’t stop telling me I deserved it!“ Jerome explained, looking down at his shoes again. You couldn’t help feeling yourself getting rather angry with Jeremiah when you heard this, it wasn’t the first time he had been trying to get smart with Jerome after he got beaten up for being a little too overexcited.

„You didn’t do anything again, did you?“ You guessed, trying to catch his eye, and when he shook his head again and kept looking down, you took him into a hug. He held onto you rather tight now while he kept crying against your shoulder, and you kept stroking the back of his head with your right hand to try to make him feel better. „Why am I never allowed to do anything?“ He suddenly asked you, making you close your eyes briefly while you leaned against his head with yours, it hurt you not being able to answer that for him. „… - … I don’t know, sweetie.“ Was all you were able to tell him. You held on to him as tight as possible now cause you didn’t know what else to do, then gave him a kiss on his tear soaked cheek. „You know, you can always… do what you want with me, right?“ You reminded him in the hopes to make him feel a little better, but unfortunately, he just hit you with he next rough question. „Why are you the only one who’s nice to me?“ You were trying very hard not to start crying yourself now, because you wanted to be strong for him. „… Jerome, I really don’t know.“ You finally told him, being forced to wipe some tears away from your eyes after all. „You wanna go back inside?“ You asked Jerome when he finally let go of you again, drying the tears of his face again with the back of your hand. „No, I don’t wanna be around him!“ Jerome said with a sniffle, trying not to start crying again. „Alright, you don’t have to do that. You know, we can go somewhere else. Maybe we can like, find a playground around here somewhere!“ You knew it was a long shot that you would even manage to leave the circus grounds without getting caught, but you felt it might do your little brother some good if he was in a different environment now. „But I’m not supposed to leave!“ Jerome told you, effectively making your plans pointless anyway. „Right, uhm… you know what, I’ll just get something from inside and we’ll play out here, ok?“ You offered him, trying to sound cheerful, pulling out a tissue and handing it to him. You then gave him a kiss on the forehead and stroked across his right cheek with the back of your hand twice, before you got back up and walked past him inside.

„Look what I made today!“ You were greeted by Jeremiah excitedly when he saw that you were the one who had come in, but you didn't waste any time to tell him off. „You know, you could be a little nicer to him when they hit him!“ You reprimanded him loudly. „But I was just saying it how it is!“ Jeremiah excused himself, apparently offended that you were mad at him because of his behavior towards Jerome. „You know, mum’s not even around to score points with, so there’s no need for you to do that!“ You snapped at him again. „I was just trying to get him to understand that he might have to act differently if he wants them to stop! He just needs to be more like me!“ He kept explaining, clearly still convinced he hadn’t done anything wrong. „Oh yeah? Remind me again when the last time was they got mad at you for spending too much time with your books or drawing around a lot!“ Jeremiah couldn’t help pouting when you dared to call him out like that, and it was at this point that you caught on to why he had acted rude towards Jerome earlier. You could feel your anger at him immediately evaporate at the crushed look on his face. „… they got mad at you too when they started yelling at Jerome, didn’t they?“ - „I was just asking them to be quiet so I could read and then they hit me!“ Jeremiah told you, while looking at the floor, quite the same way Jerome had earlier. Now you felt really bad for him too, so you got down in front of him to take him into a hug as well.

Jeremiah unfortunately still had a little bit of a naive approach towards the adults in your family. He was convinced if he just tried to stay as quiet and respectfully as possible, he would be able to get them to leave him alone some day. It had backfired on him more than once already, but he seemed determined to believe that this was the right way to do it because he was very well aware that he still never got it as bad as his twin due to his more quiet nature. So, anytime he did receive another punishment for his what the adults deemed to be rather cheeky behavior when he couldn’t help lecturing them, instead of questioning his own approach, he ended up lashing out at Jerome. „What’s so bad about me wanting to read while it’s quiet?“ Jeremiah asked you, so you let go of him again and took a hold of his arms gently. „Oh, sweetie, you know… they just can’t handle how very bright and intelligent you are. I mean come on, you know you’re way smarter than mum, right? You make her look stupid all the time!“ You tried to cheer him up. „You really think so?“ He wondered, already noticeably lighting up again. „Of course! I mean, hell, you outsmart me a lot!“ You assured him. Jeremiah now smiled at you very brightly and gave you a brief squeeze again. „I don’t mean to be smarter than you though.“ Jeremiah told you while pushing up his glasses. You couldn’t help but laugh because he seemed to feel a little guilty about it, so you leaned with your forehead against his briefly, then stroked across his nose with your finger. „I know, you know I don’t mind when you can teach me something I don’t know about yet. I like learning from you!“ You confessed to him. „Thank you. But you teach me a lot too, you’re like the best big sister ever!“ Jeremiah assured you, making you smile again at his overeager attempt to flatter you. „Aww, you’re too sweet, Jeremiah, thanks.“ You ruffled Jeremiah’s hair, then gave him a kiss to thank him, and he now seemed very pleased with himself that you appreciated his praise that much.

You were glad that you had managed to make Jeremiah feel better again, but you still felt it was important to make it obvious to him that this didn’t mean you were excusing his behavior towards Jerome, so you let out a rather long sigh while you were trying to think of the right words without trying to sound angry again. „You still could be a little nicer to him, you know.“ You finally told him. „But he annoys me a lot!“ Jeremiah immediately tried to defend himself again. „I know, but you know, you annoy him a lot too, so you’re really even there. You both have to work on that. I mean, why not be the bigger person and start first?“ You suggested, but Jeremiah disagreed without even considering it. „I’m not sure if I want to do that if I know he’s not gonna do it either.“ You let out another sigh, you knew it had been too much to ask of him, but you ran your hand through his hair again briefly nevertheless. „I’ll keep him outside, ok? So you can go back to reading.“ You said, about to get back up. „No, I was drawing now, look!“ Jeremiah pulled up a rather big sheet of paper that had a lot of sketches all over it. It was what he had intended to show you when you had started yelling at him earlier. „Wow, those are really good!“ You complimented him while you were looking over the sheet. It had been a while since you had really looked at some of his sketches, and you came to realize that he had improved a lot. „Thank you. That’s my favorite.“ Jeremiah pointed at something that seemed to take up most of the paper, sounding like he was trying not to be too proud of himself, and you couldn’t help stroke across his cheek again with a smile. You knew you were the only one who ever complimented his drawings. „Is that like a blue print of the mirror cabinet outside?“ You wondered while studying his favorite sketch. „No, that’s a maze I made up myself.“ He informed you. „Wow, looks tricky!“ You noticed as your eyes kept roaming over it. „Yeah, I was trying to make it like that. You know, I wanna make a really big one some day when I grow up.“ He confessed to you. „Oh, you’re gonna have to invite me in then, cause that looks like fun! Even though I’m not sure I’d find my way out that easily.“ You acknowledged. „Don’t worry, I’d help you with it.“ Jeremiah assured you. „Say, why don’t you draw something for me?“ You asked him, deciding it was finally time to head back out to Jerome so he wouldn’t worry you might have forgotten about him. „Ok, what do you wanna have?“ - „I don’t know, surprise me! Just anything you’d think I like!“ You told him as you opened the door to head back out to Jerome.


End file.
